Lenoch was well-known in the P-51 community, and flew his Mustang in air shows. I never met him personally, but a couple friends knew him.

According to news reports, he was doing aerobatics with a passenger when they went down, both killed.
http://abc7chicago.com/news/il...plane-crash/2224543/

sad news

Not sure if it was this guy or not, but a good friend of mine bought his father a ride in a P-51 at an airshow in Idaho just a couple of weeks ago.

A few days later I saw a P-51 buzzing around the airport in Missoula.

Crap.

Local guy to me. Class act. He did a flyby at a buddies funeral that had us on the deck.

Enjoy the flight West Sir.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
Not sure if it was this guy or not, but a good friend of mine bought his father a ride in a P-51 at an airshow in Idaho just a couple of weeks ago.

A few days later I saw a P-51 buzzing around the airport in Missoula.

You saw the "Betty Jane"
http://www.collingsfoundation....ican-tp-51c-mustang/

A shame when a talented pilot and a vintage aircraft are both lost.

I didn't post a link to a couple other stories with pictures of the wreck, but I'm afraid it's a complete loss.

Mustang owners, many of them, refer to themselves as "Keepers of the Keys", meaning they are preserving the planes for the next generation to own and fly. Lenoch was one of these, in my opinion.

Terrible.
What went wrong?

Unknown. Just news reports now, no real info. He crashed in Atchison County KS, if that's near you, after an air show I think.

Wow that sucks! I saw that very P-51 not even a month ago here in Waukesha. Very sad news.

This is a tough loss for the aviation community, not to mention his poor family. Vlado had a pretty tight relationship with the Air Museum here in Kalamazoo. From what I understand he was very helpful in securing hard to find parts for the museum's collection.
I have no idea as to what happened in this case, but this reminds me of a recent conversation I had with an older friend who has been a member of the warbird community for the past 40 years or so. He was telling me about how often they would lose someone due to just plain and simple exhaustion and dehydration. You get wined and dined, fly all weekend at an airshow, and then you hustles off to the next event. En route, you make stops at different fields along the way, each time providing the locals with the expected high speed low approaches, followed by some aerobatics. These guys do this type of stuff countless times and it only takes that one time when you are just a little too tired and/or dehydrated and you make that one little mistake or slight error in judgment that ends up costing you your life. Like I said, I have no idea as to what led to the loss of Vlado and his passenger, but it sure doesn't take much at those types of speeds and altitudes.

quote:

Originally posted by Browndrake:
This is a tough loss for the aviation community, not to mention his poor family. Vlado had a pretty tight relationship with the Air Museum here in Kalamazoo. From what I understand he was very helpful in securing hard to find parts for the museum's collection.
I have no idea as to what happened in this case, but this reminds me of a recent conversation I had with an older friend who has been a member of the warbird community for the past 40 years or so. He was telling me about how often they would lose someone due to just plain and simple exhaustion and dehydration. You get wined and dined, fly all weekend at an airshow, and then you hustles off to the next event. En route, you make stops at different fields along the way, each time providing the locals with the expected high speed low approaches, followed by some aerobatics. These guys do this type of stuff countless times and it only takes that one time when you are just a little too tired and/or dehydrated and you make that one little mistake or slight error in judgment that ends up costing you your life. Like I said, I have no idea as to what led to the loss of Vlado and his passenger, but it sure doesn't take much at those types of speeds and altitudes.

Doesn't the FAA have an accumulated hours limitation of flying time?

Whatever, it's a terrible tragedy for the world of vintage aviation as well as his family, and my thoughts and prayers go out to them and to all who knew him.

tac

I knew Vlado. I met him several times at flying conferences in the early 2000s (unfortunately, I'm not a pilot and wasn't flying; I was running the host services providing the flyers/crews everything they needed). He was really well-known and famous, yet he was nice and approachable. Not the least bit arrogant (as many would be in his position). He was a real class act.

RIP, sir.

quote:

Originally posted by tacfoley:

Doesn't the FAA have an accumulated hours limitation of flying time?

tac

I'm not aware of any accumulated hours limitations for air show pilots or GA pilots in general. What I was referring to has more to do with what you are doing to your body in general during an air show weekend. The total flight time probably isn't a whole lot, but you've spent a lot of time out in the sun, partying a little, and maybe consuming some alcohol in the evenings after the planes are in the hangar. The next day you are likely not at 100%. Sure, you may be plenty sober and otherwise able to fly your aircraft from point A to point B, but you may not have the full capacity needed to fly on the razor's edge which is what you are doing when you are talking high speed and low level maneuvers.

quote:

Originally posted by Browndrake:

What I was referring to has more to do with what you are doing to your body in general during an air show weekend. The total flight time probably isn't a whole lot, but you've spent a lot of time out in the sun, partying a little, and maybe consuming some alcohol in the evenings after the planes are in the hangar. The next day you are likely not at 100%. Sure, you may be plenty sober and otherwise able to fly your aircraft from point A to point B, but you may not have the full capacity needed to fly on the razor's edge which is what you are doing when you are talking high speed and low level maneuvers.

I saw this first-hand while working multiple air shows and flying conferences. Pilots would be up late partying; some of them getting really hammered. Next morning, bright and early, they were out flying around high-performance aircraft doing pretty impressive stunts. I'm surprised more people don't prang their kites as a result. . .

I don't know if that is the case of Vlado. I don't ever remember seeing him do this, so it's not really fair to imply that HE was less than 100% due to alcohol, lack of sleep, etc.

Of course, flying a P-51 is much different than driving a Corvette. There are wayyyyyy too many variables in play to assign blame at this point. Hopefully, an investigation can nail down what caused this crash, so that perhaps, others can be prevented in the future.

I'm more heartbroken for the passenger and her poor family. Her life was in his hands. Terrible.

It is certainly a terrible loss of both lives along with the vintage aircraft. Prayers for all.

There are a lot of variables. But the big issue is, no matter how well maintained the plane is, it is still a 75 year old airplane, and a lot of the core parts are 75 years old. Not a big deal if you're normal flying them. But in an airshow situation you're pushing all of those parts to the limit and you never know when they might go.

A friend of mine owns a WWII trainer. He does all of those air shows and flies formation in them and all of the other stuff. I flew with him in February and we're out pulling over 3G's doing various stunts (not in an airshow, just for fun). Well a month later he was flying it to Sun and Fun and took off from an airport after refueling on the way there and 8 miles after normal take off, the motor blew out all of the oil (it cracked a cylinder) and he couldn't make it all of the way back and had to belly land it in a field a mile shy of the airport. The plane is being rebuilt and no injuries at all. BUT, if it happened a few days later while he was doing stunts at the air show, there's a good chance he couldn't have safely put it down. You can only stress aluminum so many cycles and so much and eventually it's going to crack somewhere no matter how well you maintain it.

It's really unfortunate and a very sad day to see someone so well known in the warbird community and such a beautiful piece of history get detroyed

His passenger was the Atchison, Kansas Airport Manager, and also a pilot(crop duster):

http://www.tribtoday.com/news/...dies-in-plane-crash/

quote:

I didn't post a link to a couple other stories with pictures of the wreck, but I'm afraid it's a complete loss.

Most of the pictures I saw, you wouldn't know it had been an aircraft. Hate seeing something like this happen.